Opinion-in-brief: Legislation won’t solve the Facebook problem
Whistleblower Frances Haugen has revealed troubling details about Facebook’s algorithms and how they foster a polarised environment. While there is a compelling moral case for regulating these harms, legislation will not solve the problem.Facebook already prohibits a wide range of content that is legal but offensive to users.
The company uses algorithms to sort through billions of posts a day and, despite significant investments for automated and human moderators, some content inevitably slips through the cracks.
The harms identified by Haugen will be even more difficult to monitor. Facebook posts celebrating violence can easily be flagged as dangerous.
But Instagram posts that may impact children’s perceptions of body standards, are not always identifiably offensive. This nuance is not fully captured by the Online Safety Bill.